How The United Nations Are Using The Blockchain To Help The Developing World

Published 5 years ago on September 25, 2018

How The United Nations Are Using The Blockchain To Help The Developing World

The United Nations have announced that they are developing a new initiative which uses blockchain technology to help further their support for developing nations. The announcement came at the 73rd annual UN General Assembly, hosted in New York.Named the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) the initiative aims to use blockchain technologies to help improve the lives of people living in developing nations across the world. According to The Next Web, Haoliang Xu, the Assistant Secretary General at the United Nations said:

“We believe that blockchain is a technology that can have a huge impact in the developing world in numerous ways. We are excited to see the strong commitment from BCF to work with UNDP to explore how blockchain technology can help develop solutions to some of the most difficult development challenges in Asia and the Pacific.”

What is UNDP?UNDP uses blockchain technology through a partnership with the Blockchain Charity Foundation (BCF). The BCF have already partnered with Binance and are working with the exchange to help utilise blockchain technologies as a technical solution to many of the worlds social problems. UNDP will work alongside BCF to research and develop real solutions for the problems that the UN are seeing within many of the worlds developing countries, this could be anything from providing payment systems, audit trails for healthcare or even sophisticated data storage solutions. The main justification of using blockchain technology by the UN is that in theory, the blockchain should allow for a cheaper and faster alternative to their current systems and methods.Furthermore, according to The Next Web, the Head of the BCF, Helen Hai has said:

“We firmly believe that blockchain technology will bring transformative solutions to social problems, and help bridge the UN Sustainable Development Goals funding gap in fast and innovative ways.”

It is very exciting to see an organization as prolific as the United Nations tapping into this technology, not to profit themselves but to actually help enhance and better the lives of others. Not only is the blockchain disruptive, it’s transformative and therefore, can be used to transform the lives of others for good. By using blockchain technology in this way, the UN are cleaning up the reputation of the technology and are providing the mainstream world with a real example and use value for this technology. The UN are making the blockchain more attractive, something that could prove to be priceless in the future. References The Next Web Investment Disclaimer

Adrian Barkley

Adrian is an avid reader who first stumbled across Crypto after reading 'The Basics of Bitcoins and Blockchains' by Antony Lewis in 2018. Since then, Adrian has immersed himself within the industry, and has a real interest in Enterprise Blockchain solutions.